Royal Bouquet

Not that this has anything to do with my garden ...but putting the event on my timeline is all part of the 'what were you doing then stuff'....well actually I watched the wedding, walked around a lake, had a drink in a clubhouse while celebrating 'that kiss on the balcony' on a big screen with a bunch of lively revellers...then had a curry with some mates. Perfect.
Did you know that Kate Middleton's bouquet was homegrown..by British growers or cut from Royal Estates. It was mostly Lily of the Valley ...symbolising 'trustworthiness'.... no out of season flowers here either! Other trees (£50,000 worth of them) and flowers used in the Abbey were: myrtle - 'hope and love, hornbeams - 'resilience', field maples - 'humility and reserve', lilac - 'for youthful innocence'. Ideas taken by Kate from the popular Victorian code entitled 'Language of Flowers'. I'm just relieved that the trees are to be replanted ...rumour has it at the new home of the Duke and Dutchess.

Video Nasty - Dusk

The dawn chorus woke me this morning so decided to get up and do some film editing ...as you do....am I becoming a dweeb? Deffo not a geek ...just not that clever! Apologies for the crude nature of this video about our blackbird chicks ...actually filmed the TV screen and not the birds directly as not quite got direct plug in from camera to PC sorted yet ..... at least it shows how busy mum and dad BB were at dusk and proof of the fab four before one was lost on fledging.

Bee-Have

Last weekend we went to the allotment for the sole purpose of watering ...in April ...no showers ...behave yourself, it cannot be true. The hottest April since records began, I think. We were delighted to find our orchard had burst into blossom and even more exciting than that, a fellow allotmenteer and bee-keeper (two plots down) had left a pot of honeycomb for me to show my school children and you guys. He was relieved that the hive had over-wintered successfully, despite the cold winter conditions. Great news for us as that means more chance of a good apple crop this year. My son ...M for short...potential engineer .....is concerned that the branches won't hold the weight. That will give him something to calculate for his A level Maths! We have two varieties of apple ...Elstar and Cox's, both are required for successful pollination. These are all grafted trees and, I think have the potential of growing to 25 ft high ..mmmmm ....must read that RHS pruning book this Summer! 

It's A Good Place to Be!

Arrived back from Edinburgh last night to the sight of two house martins flying high over the bottom of our suburban garden. One week earlier than last year! They must have heard the UK weather report and decided to abandon holiday attempts in Spain to be in this better place!
So HAPPY ...Summer is on it's way. Please let the Summer be kind to them as we have noticed diminished numbers in the past few years. Plenty of insects are required. Good job we have a pond and that there is also a natural body of water over the back of our garden .... lots of emerging flying morsels for them to tuck into.

Ok I'm sorry ....... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbWP8VWqGn0

Fledge in the Hedge

I'm on a roll tonight! Here is one little fledgling with parent close by, feeding. We dug out some worms from the compost heap and threw them close to the birds. They found them and chomped. The weather has been unusually hot and dry this late Easter and we have been concerned that the worms have burrowed really deep down.... so that's our sad excuse for interfering with nature.

4 Birdies

At last, located a pix of the 4 baby blackbirds prior to the tragedy. Great while it all lasted. Will do a slideshow of the little darlings in action ....soon...

Pumpkin Harvest 2010

It's a bit late but to put our pumpkin fetish into perspective here is the evidence of last year's successful harvest of 30. We distributed about half to friends who wanted halloween lights and ate the rest. Some stored until late March 2011. Love 'em. They took me and M several long trips across the path from allotment plot to car boot. Who needs a gym?

Life and Death

Oh no! Before I have even blogged for a whole week, tragedy is upon us. A lesson in the realities of life (and death)! Our clutch of 4 blackbird eggs to blackbird chicks to balckbird fledglings has diminished to 3. I patiently took some pix of daddy BB feeding 3 fledglings in the front garden ...happy was me ...until the realisation that a) the SD card was NOT in my camera and b) 2 strides across the garden were the sad remains of flegdling 4. I would have cried if the chores hadn't beckoned me on. Even sadder ...here is the pix of poor no 4. Hopefully, the pix of all 4 in the nest will cheer you all up? Not to mention how sadness is rife as our Joe lost his Robin brood to the neighbour's cat on return from our Exmoor trip. I need therapy!!

Squirrel Cake

Just sorting through some suitable pix for the blog when I came across a squirrel raiding the bird table. My son made an Xmas cake but dropped it on the floor as it came out of the oven. Rather than ditching it we left it out for the birds, but this greedy squirrel seemed to get a taste for it and came back for a few helpings!

Pumpkins

Pumpkins seeds etc have been sown. So far: Pumpkin munchkin - a climber, good roasted on a bed of Rosemary; Courgette Tromboncino - the only climbing courgette, has a dense texture and rich taste; Zucca Marmellata squash - sweet flesh and a massive producer, good for lanterns; Red Kuri squash - climber with a sweet chestnutty taste, develops a thick skin for good winter storage; Queensland Blue pumpkin - great for roasting and stores well. Also sown yesterday Scarlet Emperor runner beans and old fashioned mixed sweet peas ...onward today for yet more cleaning of the seed trays and compost under the fingernails.

Starting Out

Hi everyone out there in the ether, this a new experience for me. I enter this journey with caution, and a sense of trepidation...mainly in case I make any spelling errors. Working in the field of education ...this is kinda unforgiveable, however don't be put off by my mistakes ...be sure that I am genuine to the cause ..that is helping people become aware and maybe understand more about the beautiful world of nature that surrounds them, be it a jungle or just simply a window box...... go out be nosey......it's really worth it!

So why start the blog now? Well, I've just returned from a holiday in Exmoor with my family, including Joe, my ever enthusiastic nature-watching nephew. After years of growing plants, doing conservation projects and generally getting covered in mud for various reasons, Joe has finally inspired me to publish the words and photos that have been in cluttering up both my brain and my hard-drive for many an eon.

Joe is an excellent naturalist with an exceedingly patient persona and a very keen eye for spotting the ordinary and the extraordinary sights of nature. Not only that, he knows how to use a digital SLR and is well on the way to gaining an 'A' level in photography too .... so he has to be taken seriously ...and after a few tips from him I'm off round the garden scaring every living creature within a 5 mile radius. Joe has an excellent blog-spot ....check it out:

http://joe-wildlife-garden.blogspot.com/

Before we left for Exmoor we rigged up a bird-box camera (really cheap one bought  from a well-known 'stack em high' style supermarket chain) next to a blackbird's nest and got some footage of 4 hungry chicks in the nest fed by mum ...entering always from the backdoor (hole in hedge) and dad in the frontdoor ...(another hole in the hedge). Prior to that, in early spring, the same camera captured fantastic glimpses of our MASSIVE frog population mating in the garden pond. Earplugs were required ..and blindfolds as well. I named it (possibly inappropriately ...but loved the pun ...'Frog-porn' ha!ha!ha!) Watch this space for film footage...  

Right now I've got to go and sow some runner bean, pumpkin and flower seeds to keep those bees happy in the weeks to come. Maybe they will cheer me up when I snap their antics.

Tatty bye for now. Rose.